He was shy, irresponsible, and uninterested to governing his country.
Married to Marie Antoinette
Tried to fix France's economic situation by raising taxes, but made matters worse through bad decisions such as sending the American colonists French troops to help with their Revolution
Very distrusted by the French people
Executed in 1792 during the French Revolution
Marie Antoinette (1755 – 1793)
daughter of Maria Teresa, the Empress of Austria
married to Louis XVI
had a reputation for sexual misconduct
Personal extravagance earned her the nickname “Madame Deficit”
tried, found guilty of treason, and beheaded in 1793
Jacques Necker (1732-1804)
Royal director-general of finances
regulated the finances by attempting to divide the taille or poll tax more equally, by abolishing the vingtime d'industrie, and establishing monts de pit (establishments for loaning money on security)
left office after report on expenditures angered the nobles
came back to office in 1788 by the Estates General
Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734 - 1802)
minister of finance after Necker left
sought to lower taxes, encourage internal trade, and reduce government regulation on grain trade
National Assembly did not trust his plan, wanted to direct reforms itself.
Abbe Sieyes (1748 - 1836)
priest that wrote What is the Third Estate?
Talked about the reforms the Third Estate wanted in the Estates General
helped transform the Estates-General into the National Assembly in June of 1789
Marquis de Lafayette (1757 - 1834)
commander of Paris's National Guard
General in the American Revolution
created the tricolor flag of revolutionary France
convinced the mob of angry women outside of Versailles to not kill Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
very unpopular with the Jacobins
Maximilien Robespierre (1758 - 1794)
head of the Committee of Public Safety
leader of the Reign of Terror
heavily influenced by Enlightenment philosophes Rousseau and Montesquieu
nicknamed “The Incorruptible” by his supporters
Reign of Terror ended with Robespierre's execution in 1794
George Jacques Danton (1759 - 1794)
member of the Committee of Public Safety
influence on the Jacobins
Leader of The Mountain
helped weaken the Girondists
Terms:
First Estate – The first social class that consists of the clergy, such as priests and bishops. At the time, they consisted of about 100,000 people and own 10% of the land. They were excused from taxes but occasionally gave voluntary gifts. Second Estate – The second social class that consists of the nobles. They included about 400,000 people and owned 25% of the land. They usually had very low taxes or exempt from taxes. They had control of the peasants and over their land. Third Estate – This social class that contains everyone else (peasants, artisans, and bourgeoisie), containing about 24,000,000 people. Estates General – The meeting where representatives from all three social classes meet together to vote on legislative matters, but the system was made for the first two classes to be able to override the third class because each estate got one vote. Cahiers de doléances – When the representatives for the estates general in May 1789, they brought with them this list of grievances, registered by the local electors, and presented it to the king. Tennis Court Oath – An oath that the National Assembly made when denied access to Versailles stating that they would not separate and would reassemble wherever circumstances require until the constitution of the kingdom was established. Bastille – A prison located in Paris that was known to hold political prisoners and weapons. The angry riots due to high bread prices and rumors of the royal troops coming led them to attack the Bastille and ripped it apart. Declaration of the Rights of Man – The fundamental document of the French Revolution that defines the individual and collective rights of all the estates as universal. It contains influence of the doctrine of natural right. Émigrés – The group of aristocrats that left France to settle in countries near the French border trying to foment counterrevolution. There were over 16,000 of them and they left because it was clear that the old political and social order was undergoing fundamental and probably permanent change. Jacobins – A famous political group of the French Revolution that applied to all supporters of the revolutionary opinions. They pressed for a republic rather than a constitutional monarchy, drawing their ideas from the radical thoughts of the Enlightenment and Rousseau’s emphasis on equality, popular sovereignty, and civic virtue. Girondists – A group of Jacobins that assumed leadership of the Legislative Assembly. They were determined to oppose all counterrevolution. They tried to pass measures such as ordering the émigrés to return or suffer the loss of their property, and another requiring factory clergy to support the Civil Constitution. They also led the Legislative Assembly to declare war on Austria. Convention – The Legislative body named after the American Constitutional Convention that declared France as a republic, governed by an elected assembly without a monarch. Sans-culottes – A group of Jacobins that were more radical than the Girondists. They were shopkeepers, artisans, wage earners, and sometimes factory workers. Their name means “without breeches” to represent the long trousers worn by working people instead of the aristocratic knee breeches. Levée en masse– A military requisition on the entire population, conscripting males into the army and directing economic production to military purposes.
Major events of the French Revolution Causes leading up to Revolution The French government was in huge debt after the Seven Years War and with the support of the American Revolution. King Louis XVI attempted to impose taxes that would tape the wealth of the nobles. The parlements though did not like it and would only agree if they could control it on a local level which meant more taxes on the peasants so Louis sent them away and just decreed the tax anyways. The nobles did not like this act and that they felt they were losing power that they needed to gain back. The nobles then went to the king and said he needed to call the Estates General together to vote on the matter. The Estates were set up so that the vote was stacked in favor of the nobles and clergy and the other majority of the people were always out voted even though they made up most of the country. Most of the country didn’t have a say in what they decided. Estates General The Estates were set up where 1st was the clergy, 2nd was the nobles and 3rd was everyone else. The 3rd Estate made up about 90% of the country. They way they voted were in separate rooms with each Estate getting one vote. This put the 3rd Estate at a huge disadvantage because the first two would vote together. There was a debt over how to vote, the 3rd Estate wanted it to be done by the amount of people. They were not granted this but were allowed to elect more people. When Louis called a “Royal Session” of the Estates the 3rd was locked out of their room. After this they went down to a local tennis court where everyone vowed not to leave until they came up with a Constitution for France and this came to be known as the Tennis Court Oath. A Revolution Begins With the Tennis Court Oath taking place and the 3rd Estate changed into the National Assembly it seemed like things might have a chance to change. With rumors that the army was marching towards Paris the people took it upon themselves to arm themselves. The people of Paris attacked and destroyed the Bastille on July 14, 1789. It was a prison that housed weapons that the citizens would use to start the fight of the revolution. This was the start of the revolution for the French people. On August 4, 1789 the National Constituent Assembly meet to halt the spreading disorder. When the night was over the nobles mostly gave up a bunch of their privileges and that everyone was subject to equal rights. From there they created the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. It drew on enlightenment ideals. The People taking over On October 5 Parisian women marched on Versailles demanding more bread. This intimated the king and led him to agree to the decrees of the Assembly. They then demanded that the king and royal family return to Paris and so they were taken back and now were under the control of the people. Now with the king in Paris the Assembly sought to change the government into a constitutional monarchy. They created a new constitution in 1791 making them a Legislative Assembly that had most of the power but the monarch did have supervision powers. The women were never helped in any of these moves and Olympe de Gouges wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women. They were not treated as equal. Religion was also changed with the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. This took the church and put it under more of the French government’s control. They now had to take an oath to the government and religion was lessened in the country.
Five Major Events of the French Revolution 1. Foreign Reactions to the Revolution: Liberals saw the French Revolution as a way for the ideas of the Enlightenment to be directly acted out. Conservatives however, did not see it this way. People such as Edmund Burke believed that without people with political experience running the government, the French would never create a stable government. Foreign leaders liked the Revolution; it weakened a usually extremely powerful country. Though as it dragged on, they feared that it would give Revolutionary ideas to their subjects. 2. The Declaration of Pillnitz- On August 27, 1791, Emperor Leopold II of Austria and King Frederick William II of Prussia declared that they would intervene in France if it became necessary. They would only intervene in France if a threat to the monarchy was attempted. Although at the time this declaration had little weight behind it, it angered the revolutionaries in France. They saw it as an attempt to undo all that they had done since 1789. 3. The Second Revolution: The End to the Monarchy- France was declared a Republic in September of 1792. In order to completely turn away from the old France, the National Assembly saw that France needed a new culture. They removed the old religious calendar and replaced it with one that followed the seasons. It also had a ten day week and began in the year 1789, the year that the Revolution had begun. They wanted to cleanse France of its old religion. So instead of having parades celebrating religious figures, they celebrated the government of France. These new ideas worked in the larger cities in France, but they did not in the countryside. The peasants of France really only knew one thing; their religion. And when that was taken away from that it was very troubling to them. 4. The Total War on Terror: How Robespierre Gained Power: Robespierre used saw that he could gain large numbers of support if he sided with the san-culottes. He used three tactics to rise in power; a. A price seal was placed on certain products. This prevented these goods from rising in price when inflation did rise. The government also nationalized the workshops in Paris. This was the first instance of socialism in Europe. b. He drew on the extreme nationalism that the citizens had for France to get the country behind the war effort. c. He set up courts to try the “enemies of the state”. These courts actually had very little justice behind them; they were more of a sham. This is where the Reign of Terror began. Anyone who did not vocally support the Revolution could be seen as an enemy of the state. The people most targeted were; monarchists, foreigners, moderates, and aristocrats. 5. The Fall of Robespierre: At the height of his power Robespierre established a new cult in France, called the “Cult of the Supreme Being”. This was simply one of the horrible decisions that he made which lead to his death. They were: a. Accusing government leaders, during a Convention meeting that they were working against him and the Revolution. b. The san-culottes, whom he had allied himself with, became angry when he had some of their leaders killed. c. People saw Robespierre as attempting to become a dictator. d. To prevent this from happening, they arrested him. e. In his cell, a kind soldier gave him a gun to kill himself with; he missed and shot his jaw off instead. f. He was killed at the guillotine the next day.
People:
Louis XVI (1754-1792)
- grandson of King Louis XV.
- Became king of France In 1775
- He was shy, irresponsible, and uninterested to governing his country.
- Married to Marie Antoinette
- Tried to fix France's economic situation by raising taxes, but made matters worse through bad decisions such as sending the American colonists French troops to help with their Revolution
- Very distrusted by the French people
- Executed in 1792 during the French Revolution
Marie Antoinette (1755 – 1793)- daughter of Maria Teresa, the Empress of Austria
- married to Louis XVI
- had a reputation for sexual misconduct
- Personal extravagance earned her the nickname “Madame Deficit”
- tried, found guilty of treason, and beheaded in 1793
Jacques Necker (1732-1804)- Royal director-general of finances
- regulated the finances by attempting to divide the taille or poll tax more equally, by abolishing the vingtime d'industrie, and establishing monts de pit (establishments for loaning money on security)
- left office after report on expenditures angered the nobles
- came back to office in 1788 by the Estates General
Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734 - 1802)- minister of finance after Necker left
- sought to lower taxes, encourage internal trade, and reduce government regulation on grain trade
- National Assembly did not trust his plan, wanted to direct reforms itself.
Abbe Sieyes (1748 - 1836)- priest that wrote What is the Third Estate?
- Talked about the reforms the Third Estate wanted in the Estates General
- helped transform the Estates-General into the National Assembly in June of 1789
Marquis de Lafayette (1757 - 1834)- commander of Paris's National Guard
- General in the American Revolution
- created the tricolor flag of revolutionary France
- convinced the mob of angry women outside of Versailles to not kill Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
- very unpopular with the Jacobins
Maximilien Robespierre (1758 - 1794)- head of the Committee of Public Safety
- leader of the Reign of Terror
- heavily influenced by Enlightenment philosophes Rousseau and Montesquieu
- nicknamed “The Incorruptible” by his supporters
- Reign of Terror ended with Robespierre's execution in 1794
George Jacques Danton (1759 - 1794)Terms:
First Estate – The first social class that consists of the clergy, such as priests and bishops. At the time, they consisted of about 100,000 people and own 10% of the land. They were excused from taxes but occasionally gave voluntary gifts.
Second Estate – The second social class that consists of the nobles. They included about 400,000 people and owned 25% of the land. They usually had very low taxes or exempt from taxes. They had control of the peasants and over their land.
Third Estate – This social class that contains everyone else (peasants, artisans, and bourgeoisie), containing about 24,000,000 people.
Estates General – The meeting where representatives from all three social classes meet together to vote on legislative matters, but the system was made for the first two classes to be able to override the third class because each estate got one vote.
Cahiers de doléances – When the representatives for the estates general in May 1789, they brought with them this list of grievances, registered by the local electors, and presented it to the king.
Tennis Court Oath – An oath that the National Assembly made when denied access to Versailles stating that they would not separate and would reassemble wherever circumstances require until the constitution of the kingdom was established.
Bastille – A prison located in Paris that was known to hold political prisoners and weapons. The angry riots due to high bread prices and rumors of the royal troops coming led them to attack the Bastille and ripped it apart.
Declaration of the Rights of Man – The fundamental document of the French Revolution that defines the individual and collective rights of all the estates as universal. It contains influence of the doctrine of natural right.
Émigrés – The group of aristocrats that left France to settle in countries near the French border trying to foment counterrevolution. There were over 16,000 of them and they left because it was clear that the old political and social order was undergoing fundamental and probably permanent change.
Jacobins – A famous political group of the French Revolution that applied to all supporters of the revolutionary opinions. They pressed for a republic rather than a constitutional monarchy, drawing their ideas from the radical thoughts of the Enlightenment and Rousseau’s emphasis on equality, popular sovereignty, and civic virtue.
Girondists – A group of Jacobins that assumed leadership of the Legislative Assembly. They were determined to oppose all counterrevolution. They tried to pass measures such as ordering the émigrés to return or suffer the loss of their property, and another requiring factory clergy to support the Civil Constitution. They also led the Legislative Assembly to declare war on Austria.
Convention – The Legislative body named after the American Constitutional Convention that declared France as a republic, governed by an elected assembly without a monarch.
Sans-culottes – A group of Jacobins that were more radical than the Girondists. They were shopkeepers, artisans, wage earners, and sometimes factory workers. Their name means “without breeches” to represent the long trousers worn by working people instead of the aristocratic knee breeches.
Levée en masse– A military requisition on the entire population, conscripting males into the army and directing economic production to military purposes.
Major events of the French Revolution
Causes leading up to Revolution
The French government was in huge debt after the Seven Years War and with the support of the American Revolution. King Louis XVI attempted to impose taxes that would tape the wealth of the nobles. The parlements though did not like it and would only agree if they could control it on a local level which meant more taxes on the peasants so Louis sent them away and just decreed the tax anyways. The nobles did not like this act and that they felt they were losing power that they needed to gain back. The nobles then went to the king and said he needed to call the Estates General together to vote on the matter. The Estates were set up so that the vote was stacked in favor of the nobles and clergy and the other majority of the people were always out voted even though they made up most of the country. Most of the country didn’t have a say in what they decided.
Estates General
The Estates were set up where 1st was the clergy, 2nd was the nobles and 3rd was everyone else. The 3rd Estate made up about 90% of the country. They way they voted were in separate rooms with each Estate getting one vote. This put the 3rd Estate at a huge disadvantage because the first two would vote together. There was a debt over how to vote, the 3rd Estate wanted it to be done by the amount of people. They were not granted this but were allowed to elect more people. When Louis called a “Royal Session” of the Estates the 3rd was locked out of their room. After this they went down to a local tennis court where everyone vowed not to leave until they came up with a Constitution for France and this came to be known as the Tennis Court Oath.
A Revolution Begins
With the Tennis Court Oath taking place and the 3rd Estate changed into the National Assembly it seemed like things might have a chance to change. With rumors that the army was marching towards Paris the people took it upon themselves to arm themselves. The people of Paris attacked and destroyed the Bastille on July 14, 1789. It was a prison that housed weapons that the citizens would use to start the fight of the revolution. This was the start of the revolution for the French people. On August 4, 1789 the National Constituent Assembly meet to halt the spreading disorder. When the night was over the nobles mostly gave up a bunch of their privileges and that everyone was subject to equal rights. From there they created the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. It drew on enlightenment ideals.
The People taking over
On October 5 Parisian women marched on Versailles demanding more bread. This intimated the king and led him to agree to the decrees of the Assembly. They then demanded that the king and royal family return to Paris and so they were taken back and now were under the control of the people. Now with the king in Paris the Assembly sought to change the government into a constitutional monarchy. They created a new constitution in 1791 making them a Legislative Assembly that had most of the power but the monarch did have supervision powers. The women were never helped in any of these moves and Olympe de Gouges wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women. They were not treated as equal. Religion was also changed with the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. This took the church and put it under more of the French government’s control. They now had to take an oath to the government and religion was lessened in the country.
Five Major Events of the French Revolution
1. Foreign Reactions to the Revolution: Liberals saw the French Revolution as a way for the ideas of the Enlightenment to be directly acted out. Conservatives however, did not see it this way. People such as Edmund Burke believed that without people with political experience running the government, the French would never create a stable government. Foreign leaders liked the Revolution; it weakened a usually extremely powerful country. Though as it dragged on, they feared that it would give Revolutionary ideas to their subjects.
2. The Declaration of Pillnitz- On August 27, 1791, Emperor Leopold II of Austria and King Frederick William II of Prussia declared that they would intervene in France if it became necessary. They would only intervene in France if a threat to the monarchy was attempted. Although at the time this declaration had little weight behind it, it angered the revolutionaries in France. They saw it as an attempt to undo all that they had done since 1789.
3. The Second Revolution: The End to the Monarchy- France was declared a Republic in September of 1792. In order to completely turn away from the old France, the National Assembly saw that France needed a new culture. They removed the old religious calendar and replaced it with one that followed the seasons. It also had a ten day week and began in the year 1789, the year that the Revolution had begun. They wanted to cleanse France of its old religion. So instead of having parades celebrating religious figures, they celebrated the government of France. These new ideas worked in the larger cities in France, but they did not in the countryside. The peasants of France really only knew one thing; their religion. And when that was taken away from that it was very troubling to them.
4. The Total War on Terror: How Robespierre Gained Power: Robespierre used saw that he could gain large numbers of support if he sided with the san-culottes. He used three tactics to rise in power;
a. A price seal was placed on certain products. This prevented these goods from rising in price when inflation did rise. The government also nationalized the workshops in Paris. This was the first instance of socialism in Europe.
b. He drew on the extreme nationalism that the citizens had for France to get the country behind the war effort.
c. He set up courts to try the “enemies of the state”. These courts actually had very little justice behind them; they were more of a sham. This is where the Reign of Terror began. Anyone who did not vocally support the Revolution could be seen as an enemy of the state. The people most targeted were; monarchists, foreigners, moderates, and aristocrats.
5. The Fall of Robespierre: At the height of his power Robespierre established a new cult in France, called the “Cult of the Supreme Being”. This was simply one of the horrible decisions that he made which lead to his death. They were:
a. Accusing government leaders, during a Convention meeting that they were working against him and the Revolution.
b. The san-culottes, whom he had allied himself with, became angry when he had some of their leaders killed.
c. People saw Robespierre as attempting to become a dictator.
d. To prevent this from happening, they arrested him.
e. In his cell, a kind soldier gave him a gun to kill himself with; he missed and shot his jaw off instead.
f. He was killed at the guillotine the next day.